the future of Talk Islam
Salaams all – I’d like to get some community feedback on some choices ahead for Talk Islam.
In a nutshell, WordPress is nearing its 3.0 release which will integrate the single-user and multi-user versions (the latter which rives this site and its Journals). I am thinking of adding the Buddypress layer to the site after that release, which will allow us to create user profiles, groups, and other facebook-like features, and greatly increase the ways in which we can communicate with each other and interact. However, to really be able to do this on my limited time and budget, this may require some expense – specifically, for access to the WPMUDEV premium software library.
So, my questions to you all is, are you satisfied with how Talk Islam functions? Would you be interested in having a social network layer to the site? Are should we leave things alone? Would you be averse to helping donate some money to achieve these goals?
Also, a quick poll on a related but tangential matter, the site name – please vote:
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Alex Cachinero-Gorman, 
mirelle, and 2 others are discussing.
Abu Noor 8:31 am on May 26, 2010 Permalink
I like the name TalkIslam, so that’s how I voted but I am happy to defer to people who know the net better if they think the .info is a hindrance to the site.
aziz 8:42 am on May 26, 2010 Permalink
i dunno if .info is a real a hindrance. Theoretically, it could be, but I have no way to test that. Ignorance is sorta bliss
But we do have the Islamsphere domain, so im just trying to gauge whether we should actually use it. I could actcually repurpose that for another use (maybe a aggregate site which pulls in Talk Islam, twitter feeds, etc etc)
shams 10:36 am on May 26, 2010 Permalink
i like talkislam
a sphere is a limiting construct.
mirelle 7:52 pm on May 26, 2010 Permalink
You can have one point to another. “Islamsphere…where we TalkIslam” or some such.
aziz 8:03 am on May 27, 2010 Permalink
well, i think the poll is pretty clear
TalkIslam we are, and TalkIslam we shall stay.
however, if anyone has ideas on how to steal away the TalkIslam.com domain from whoever has it now, lease let me know, discreetly. j/k. I think.
Alex Cachinero-Gorman 2:56 am on May 28, 2010 Permalink
islamsphere should definitely serve another purpose. talkislam is a very fortunate title to have, and it matches so well that by-line that immediately sold me to the site, “a crescent waxing eloquent.”
in other news, facebook like features, for sure–facebook, as draconian as it already was, is becoming increasingly more so, and in place of an actual, open-source, good-faith alternative to facebook that does not necessarily try to reinvent the wheel and merely shamelessly (here i think this is a good thing) pirates all of its core features, i think that we’ll see a lot of people leaving “the book”, which means that in the meantime a more diffuse mesh of linked social networking sites should definitely come into existence.
if the communities most important to me each had a social networking function of their own that did not involve heaps upon heaps of usernames and passwords, i would personally value that over selling my soul to facebook.
so yes, having those features on talkislam would make this boy happy.